UTS academic with a taste for democracy falls foul of authorities in China

Robert Bolton

Updated Mar 27, 2017 — 4.26pm, first published at 1.51pm

Chongi Feng is regarded as well connected, well informed and well disposed to China. He's also convinced the global trend of democratisation is irreversible. And he has a big internet following, which at times has included a vast number of Chinese people.

Writing in The Australian Financial Review not long after Xi Jinping took power as President, Professor Feng said one party autocracy in China could not last forever. But he added that if the Communist party embraced reform, "It could survive, or even thrive, as a normal parliamentary party".

With views like this he is under constant scrutiny from Beijing, although his current weird limbo status in Guangzhou – he can't leave but he's not being charged with anything – seems to be about local politics versus Beijing.

Professor Chongyi Feng, (far right, white T-shirt) at home in Sydney with visiting students and academics. John Garnaut

Feng first came to Australia as a junior academic in 1993. By then he'd already developed a strong taste for liberal ideas and constitutional democracy. He told the Financial Review the most formative experience in his education was reading "A Letter Concerning Toleration" written by the early Enlightenment philosopher John Locke.

He has taught at what is now The University of Technology of Sydney since the mid -990s and is married to another Chinese academic who teaches in Sydney and with whom he has a daughter.

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Although both his wife and daughter hold Australian passports, Feng retained his Chinese passport, according to colleagues, out of loyalty to China. He holds a right to permanent residency in Australia.

Fellow academics say Feng is highly regarded in global as well as domestic China-watching circles. He ran extensive programs bringing Chinese students and teachers to Australia in a series of exchange programs.

"We need him," says Professor John Fitzgerald from Swinburne University of Technology. "He makes a great contribution to the debate about China in Australia.

"We have former prime ministers and premiers who often talk enthusiastically about China. And that meets the enormous appeal China has in Australia. But having someone who is highly informed and is willing to provide a reality check on China is very valuable for us," he says.

"Professor Feng is a Chinese patriot, that's the reason he didn't give up his Chinese passport. But he's willing to be critical. And every now and then it's really good for Australia to hear a reality check about what's happening in the country."

A UTS spokesman said the university had been in regular contact with Professor Feng since he first ran into trouble with authorities in Guangzhou late last week. He told the university he was free to move around the city despite being unable to leave the country.